Thirteen
by RemyTheReaper
Summary: He never thought he liked her, until he realized she hadn't been to work in days. House/Thirteen.


**A/N: Hi peeps! So this was a request from Whatever Makes You Break, and it's a House/Thirteen oneshot sort of. I tried my best! Lol well anyways, here it is…**

Dr. Gregory House sat in his office, watching his ducklings through the glass wall. Kutner was doing a crossword puzzle, Foreman was reading a newspaper, Taub was standing by the coffee maker, and Thirteen was nowhere to be found. House frowned, she was usually early coming into work. Grabbing his cane he stood up and barged into the next room, earning looks from the others.

"Where's the littlest duckling, get lost at the pond? " House asked his surprised team.

"Thirteen hasn't been here for two days…" Kutner said, setting his pen down on the table, "She didn't call to say she wouldn't be coming in?"

"Two days? Really? You'd think I would have noticed." Foreman rolled his eyes.

"She probably left you a message, you know, those things you never check" House ignored him, limping back into his office. Why hadn't he noticed Thirteen had been gone? He pulled his shades shut before walking over to his desk, then stopping himself and heading across the balcony to Wilson's office.

"Wilson, are you supposed to call someone before you break their door down?" Wilson looked up from the paper he was studying and appeared to think about it for a moment.

"Well I don't think you're supposed to break their door down to begin with, so I'm not sure it matters. Why, breaking into another patient's home?"

"What! I would never break into a patient's home!… I have people who do that for me. Thirteen hasn't come to work in two days"

"I'm surprised you noticed"

"Right, well on the off chance I get a patient I'll need her to get way too involved in the case and make lots of wrong diagnoses so I can come up with the correct one"

"No, that's not why you noticed, you can always borrow Cameron if you need that…"

Wilson trailed off and stared at House in disbelief, "You like her" House rolled his eyes,

"I do not! She's dying, there's nothing there" Wilson smirked,

"That's why you like her."

"No, that's why Cameron would like her…think she's a swinger? I bet if she heard Thirteen was dying…"

"Right. Well you keep fantasizing about that, I've got to go to the clinic" Wilson got up and left House standing alone in his office with something to think about. He didn't like her did he? No, of course not. Then why was he getting a weird feeling he usually related to worry? Making his way back to his office he was annoyed to find Kutner standing in there waiting for him.

"I need to take the rest of the day off" Kutner announced. House shook his head,

"Nope. I give you the rest of the day off, you go to Thirteen's apartment, act all concerned, then you two sit around and watch Star Wars like the nerds you are" Kutner frowned,

"She doesn't even like Star Wars" he mumbled.

"Right, sorry, Battlestar Galactica. Now take my nametag and go do my clinic hours" Kutner didn't say anything for a moment, then looked up and stared House in the eyes,

"No!" House sighed,

"You still haven't gotten that down. Really, go to the clinic, I haven't done any of my hours this week" Kutner glared as House tossed his nametag at him, but took it anyways and left the office. House waited until he was sure Kutner was gone before grabbing his keys and exiting his office, his cane tapping on the white linoleum hallway as he headed for the elevator. Why didn't he just let Kutner go see Thirteen? It would be easier than riding over there on his own and breaking into her apartment.

"I don't like her" he told himself, the doors to the elevator closing, leaving him in the tiny box on his own. He didn't like her. He couldn't like her. It was wrong, it was-

"House! Just who I was coming to see" The elevator doors were open now and Cuddy was standing on the other side, glaring. House pushed past her,

"Sorry, can't service you right now, I'm busy with doctor stuff, you wouldn't understand" Cuddy rolled her eyes, following House as he headed for the door.

"You're slacking on your clinic duties…and your rubbing off on your fellows too"

"I always knew they took after me, I mean sure, they've got Wilson's eyes, but gosh I couldn't be more proud." Cuddy hesitated, confused and disturbed at the same time, then realized House was still on the move and caught up to him.

"Go do your clinic hours, and make sure Dr. Hadley does hers too." House paused,

"Yeah, I'll get right on that, you know, after I figure out where she's been the past two days." Cuddy frowned,

"What do you mean?"

"She hasn't been here the last two days, I'm going to find her and figure out where she's been"

"You haven't heard from her!" Cuddy moved in front of House, stopping him from going any further. He rolled his eyes,

"If I had heard from her, I wouldn't be going to break into her apartment now would I?" Cuddy laughed in exasperation,

"House! One of your employees, nevermind the fact it was your pretty 20 something year old female employee, goes missing and you don't think to report it!? Something could have happened to her!" House was quiet for a moment, staring at the hysterical Dean of Medicine before cracking a small smile,

"You think Thirteen's pretty?"

"GO FIND HER!" Cuddy stepped aside and pointed to the door.

"Gladly"

Twenty minutes later House found himself standing outside the high-rise apartment building, staring up. He wondered what he would find when he got to her apartment. What if something had happened to her? Did she have any family or neighbors that would have worried about her if they didn't hear from her in a few days? House knew the answer, and almost felt bad as he limped inside and over to the elevator. He pushed the button and waited until the doors opened, and he got on, pressing the button for the 11th floor and pulling his Vicodin bottle out of his pocket. He opened the bottle and shook a couple of pills into his palm; dry swallowing them just as the elevator reached his destination.

"11 H…" he made his way down the hall, searching for the apartment. He couldn't identify what he was feeling; it was some sort of mix between concern and guilt, concern about his duckling's well being, and guilt over not noticing her absence sooner. Cuddy had made a valid point, Thirteen was young and pretty, and there were a lot of bad people in the world. House blocked the horrible images from his head as he reached the door he had been looking for. He took a deep breath, and against his first instinct knocked loudly.

"One minute!" came a call from inside. House felt some of the tension he had been holding in release, she was there, which meant she was safe. After a moment House heard footsteps approaching the door, then the lock clicked and the door opened.

"House? What the hell are you doing here!?" House stared at her, not sure what to say. She wore a tight camisole and short blue track pants, the same color as her eyes, which were practically shooting daggers at House as he stared at her slick, wet (most likely from a shower as her hair was wet too) skin. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, except for a few curly strands, which hung in her face.

"Wow" was all House could choke out. Thirteen blushed and rolled her eyes,

"Wait here" she walked off, out of House's view and came back a moment later wearing a Yale sweatshirt that was much too big on her.

"You're no fun!"

"Okay, I'm going to ask one more time, WHAT are you doing here!?" House rolled his eyes,

"You can't just not show up for work for three days and expect me not to wonder where you are" House said slowly, staring at her again. This time he was staring for a different reason, she was shaking.

"House I left you like ten messages, you never pick up your phone"

"You're shaking" Now House had a new reason to be concerned. He knew Thirteen had Huntingtons, but it couldn't be happening that soon could it? He couldn't be losing her yet, could he? He felt sick, how could he have wasted so much time with her, when he knew he didn't have long?

"I'm freezing! If you had actually listened to my messages you would know that I've got the flu. I'm on meds, but they aren't doing anything for my fever. It's around 30 degrees in here." House nodded. Of course it wasn't happening yet, he still had time. He could still make her want him, just like he had done with Cameron. This time though, he wasn't going to let someone else swoop in and steal her, he wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

"When are you coming back to work?" Thirteen shrugged,

"Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple of days, depending on how I feel" House nodded again, turning and beginning to walk down the hall,

"Wait!" He paused, letting Thirteen catch up to him. She immediately blushed and shoved her hands in the large sweatshirt pocket.

"You wouldn't happen to know where Kutner is, would you?" House opened his mouth to answer, but stopped, staring at Thirteen slack-jawed. Had she just asked for Kutner? His eyes travelled down to the sweatshirt she was wearing and it occurred to him that she hadn't gone to Yale. The only person on his team who had was…

"You're dating Kutner?" Thirteen blushed harder,

"We aren't really dating per-say…"

"Right, well he's doing my clinic hours. He'll probably be over after that, force you to watch one of his geeky sci-fi movies" With that House limped away as fast as he could without causing his leg too much pain. He was too late again, and Kutner was going to be doing his clinic hours for a long, long time.

**A/N: Yeah… so that was really one sided, but I can't really see Thirteen ever liking House in that way so sorry :( Anyways, please review.**

**-Remy**


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